Transcription of Tom Bradbury for the show Wheels #39
Lisa: On today’s Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast, our theme is wheels and we spent time previously with Brandon Gillard of the Kennebunkport bicycle company who lead us into a conversation that we’re going to have next with Tom Bradbury of the Kennebunkport Conversation Trust. Tom Bradbury is the executive director of the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust and has worked closely with Brandon to develop an extensive series of trails right in the Kennebunkport area. Thanks for coming in.
Tom: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Lisa: Tom, you and I were talking before we got on air about your house in Cape Porpoise and the fact that you’re living in a place where you’re grandfather or maybe a great grandfather, somebody way, way back.
Tom: Way, way back.
Lisa: Way, way back, used to live. Tell me about that.
Tom: Well, we live in the same neighborhood. My mother grew up about 200 yards toward the center of the town then her father grew up 200 yards on the other direction. She migrated right into the middle which was where I was born so we move about at the same pace as continental shift. We figure it’s about one foot per year …
Lisa: Your family should be …
Tom: In the 200 years we’ve been around there, we move about 200 feet.
Lisa: In another few thousand years, maybe you’ll be up to Portland or …?
Tom: If we survive that long, we may or may not because we tend to shift right back to where we started out.
Lisa: Is this the reason why you were interested in developing the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, the sense of belonging?
Tom: Absolutely. In the late 80’s, a lot of properties started to be threatened and a lot of those properties were places that we really love, places that we played on and a lot of us couldn’t stand to see them being lost for people’s enjoyment. We started purchasing them and a lot of others were donated to us and it was originally going to be one island and then another one came up and well, maybe we should do another island and then the beach. Had some opportunities so we thought we’d hit that.
We went from three properties to now, we’re approaching a hundred transactions in that course of time. Our goal was to set aside those places that were made up of … Those places that made the essential character of our community and places that people could access different recreation opportunities, places where people could play on and scenic vistas.
Lisa: Describe the essential character. What is the essential character of Kennebunkport, Cape Porpoise which is I know the suburb that you sort of live in?
Tom: It’s a rural Maine town and the town that I grew up was even more rural than it is today. It had its islands and it has its lobstering harbor and the harbor still remains, a working lobsterman’s harbor. It has a local beach and it also has a fairly large amount of woodlands that most people don’t associate with the town. What we try to do is take a good representative example of all of those and have them available for the next generation.
Genevieve: Have you found in your purchasing of these lands, a tension between places that people want to remain forever wild and places that people can recreate on? Because I know that with easements and those kinds of transactions, sometimes that is a tension.
Tom: We’ve had a remarkable support. In fact, the property that Brandon talked about in terms of the trails for biking, a good portion of that was given to us by the citizens of Kennebunkport that was known as the town forest. It was taken over by the town for lack of paying taxes after the 1947 fire and maybe ten years ago now, we approach the town and asked them if they would consider giving it to the trust so that we could spend some time trying to enhance it. Improve access and create something special from it. It was an over 80% vote to donate 600 acres of town land to the conservation trust. I think that’s pretty remarkable support.
Lisa: Tell me what types of things your organization does for the community. We talked about land but from what I understand, there are community things that are going on all the time that are promoted by the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust.
Tom: When we started out with, we asked the community to support us in order to purchase properties or to gather properties. We use the community to create a collection of special places and now, we’re trying to use those special places to build the community. We put aside just a vast collection of … vast is too big though. A wide selection of properties that really represent the whole community so that people can go to the islands and picnic their islands that are used for camping. The local beach is a good portion of that. We own wooded lands that both serve as a recreational hiking,-biking type areas but also as wildlife quarters.
Lisa: Our show is about wheels, bicycles and one of the things that biking does is keep urban sprawl to a minimum. Do you find that open space helps contain communities in a good sense and that really localize them? When you are talking about the wildlife corridors, there’s sort of a greenbelt effect that starts to happen, is that correct?
Tom: That’s right. One of it … Early on, in the 80’s, one of the thoughts we were working, there was a development boom going on at that time and there were a lot of initiatives and a lot of different ways that tried to keep the town as close to what it was as we could. Politically, one of the things that was tried was through zoning and often times, the intent or the idea was that maybe if we created larger house slots for properties, that this would keep density down and what it in fact did was spread people out and be counter-productive.
What the trust has tried to do is buy contiguous pieces of properties so they’re kind of common areas for people and places that everyone can enjoy and it has a side effect I think in terms of building community. One of the things that separates people a lot of time is that as new people with new values perhaps move into a place, there’s a tendency for them to reflect values from where they came from and some of these are nobody’s faults or not even ill-will, it’s just the way it is.
You’re apt to get places that were traditional recreational areas all of sudden, have no trespassing signs or this path that was always use is no longer available to people. In one sense, what we’re doing in terms of protecting those common areas, makes it a lot easier to adopt new people to the town because they’re not taking anything away from anybody. They’re just joining us and hopefully, joining us in our efforts to further protect what they thought enough of … to move to.
Genevieve: Which is the essence of conservation.
Tom: Exactly.
Genevieve: Preserving that traditional use.
Tom: Right. It also helps that in building community because if they’re not posing a threat to what is or what will be, then it’s a lot easier for people to adapt into the culture of the town.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following general sponsor, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth Maine, makers of Dr. John’s Granola Cereal. Find them on the web at orthopedicspecialistsme.com.
Lisa: I’ve spent time in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Cape Porpoise and I do have this sense, it’s a very unique place. It’s a blend of people who have come from away, people who have live there a very long time but there is a sense of caring for one another. Do you think that this sense of caring for one another and actually knowing your neighbors whether they live there for a part of the time, part of the year, part of … or full time, do you think that has helped you with the Kennebunkport conservation project?
Tom: No question. I think those that move there, they love seeing it as a working fishing harbor. They love the access to special places and they love the opportunity to be able to bike or hike or enjoy the community. They come knowing what it is and appreciating what they move to and that makes it that much easier to attract them to what we’re trying to do.
Lisa: Describe some of the changes that you’ve seen in your lifetime to this area. You live there your entire life, correct?
Tom: Yes.
Lisa: Tell me some of the changes, good and bad that you’ve seen.
Tom: The largest changes probably are the wealth has come to the community. When I grew up, it was a small fishing village and it had a busy summer as all of Maine does. There were a lot more people in the summer but at labor day, past noon, the streets were empty. The businesses would close and they’d hold parties, after season parties on labor day and that doesn’t happen anymore because the season continues to extend right through Christmas now and starts up earlier.
The homes were typically of fishermen, working families for the most part in my part of the town. You could tell the difference between a fishing family and a new family, the town because the picture window would be faced over the cove when somebody new to the town came whereas before, it was facing the street. Because when the lobstermen came home, they didn’t need to look out on the water, they’ve been there all day long.
Today, there are a lot more picture windows, overlooking the harbor. The feel of the town surprisingly, even though the native population is few, is still remarkably the same just because of what you talked about. The people that have arrived really care for the community and they care for the way it looks and the feel of it and it is neighborly.
Lisa: What were some of your favorite activities. Did you bike when you were younger or what were some of your Kennebunkport area activities?
Tom: My biking was a Schwinn with baseball cards with close pins attached to the wheels for effect.
Lisa: So they made that noise? Yes.
Tom: Brandon would love it. We were … it was a much different dynamic because when I grew up, our parents would say, “Leave the house and I don’t want to see you until supper time,” so we were on our own all day long. We played a lot of sports and we did a lot of exploring. We were on the islands a lot and we were in the back cove and we were in the woods and we were using our imaginations a lot for all of our activities. That fostered the love of the places that we later tried to protect.
Lisa: Do you feel that love of place is something that you’re now offering to the next generation? The work that you’re doing?
Tom: That’s what we’re trying to do and that’s probably the most important thing we will do now because what’s happening today is really almost the opposite of that. There’s very little free time now, it’s structured play and structured activities and not as much or far less exploration than before.
One of the concerns from the environmental side is that if you don’t love a place and know a place, then there’s no incentive for protecting it later on. We were motivated by the fact that these places might be lost but now that they’re protected and in the trust, they don’t have that threat to face. It’s going to be strictly love of place that will motivate the next generation to take over what we protected and to carry it forward. Getting kids and people in general onto the properties, we think is essential.
Lisa: Have you spent time on the bike trials yourself on a bike?
Tom: Not in a bike but on the trails, significant amount of time I guess. We thought that was just a fabulous partnership because they had a … Everything we do is based on volunteers so we have a staff of two and the rest of it is people that are willing to spend their free time helping us with different projects. The trails are a perfect example of what can be done when people take up an interest in it and chip in. Because it’s nearly ten miles of trails in that one property now that were all constructed by volunteers and they’re over there today.
Typically, they’re four, five days a week working, mostly mornings but having fun creating something that’s very special that’s enjoyed by a lot of people.
Lisa: From what you’re saying, it’s not just about the money that you need to raise by the land, it’s also about creating caretakers, a community of caretakers for the land itself.
Tom: I think the caretakers are apt to be more challenging than the money. Of all of the lots that we’ve protected, I think we might have purchased 15 or 20 of them and the rest were donated because what you’re talking about earlier in terms of sense of community, people love the place that they grew up and they want others to share that love with them. A surprising number of properties were given to us just out of that and obviously, fund raising is a part of the business side of it but that only allows us to protect the property. It doesn’t get us to trails or the access or the involvement with people that brings life to the organization.
Lisa: What you’ve done in your collaboration with Brandon is a great example of how open space preserved can actually serve as a beacon for younger generation to come in, establish a business practice. I’m always interested in Kennebunkport how … even though the fishing community has its challenges now, the ethos, that sort of Maine individual work ethic is very alive and well and people are very independent and entrepreneurial. By creating a community where people want to live, you then have this younger generation, that energy that exists.
Tom: It’s also intercultural energy as well, I think. It’s fun to see the organization attracts the local lobstermen, the local businessmen, the people that have retired here recently and it provide something common that they all going to identify with and enjoy. Again, I think it adds in creating a community.
What we’re trying to do now in addition to that, are children’s programs that bring them to a lot of places that we own, to start them off early, knowing what they’re hometown is all about and giving them a sense of place. Often, kids are kind of … they’re always on the go and too often, they’re a multifamily instances where they might now exactly where home is. What we’re trying to do is foster spirit of knowing that this is your hometown, this is where you’re from and hopefully, the values will flow out of that.
Lisa: Open up a business there someday.
Tom: I hope so.
Lisa: Tom, where can people find out more about the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust?
Tom: You can go on to our website, kporttrust.org and you can e-mail me at [email protected] and we’d be happy to send out materials and any information that we can provide.
Lisa: Well, thank you so much for coming in and talking to us today about the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust and the work you’ve been doing and the work you’ve been doing in collaboration with Brandon Gillard of Kennebunkport bicycle company. We appreciate your time.
Tom: Great. Thank you very much.